Tag: Christmas

This is my second post in this year’s Advent Calendar blog series at Solveig’s blog. I intended to write more, but alas, I’ve been sick for the past few days. Better this weekend than next, with the holiday and all.

Check my entry today then read the posts by others from around the world. This series is really quite lovely and a great way to connect with other bloggers. Plus! You have to click the link to see the cute photo I included with my post.

These little critters greeted me on a Christmas tree at a senior living facility my choir sang at. It was the one member’s mom’s holiday party, and we were the entertainment. When I joined the choir, I thought it would be fun, but when I found out they perform for seniors as part of their […]

People! For the 4th year in a row, I’ve participated in Solveig’s Advent Calendar series! It’s fun to read posts all month long from people around the world! Check out my first post of the month today (link below) — with another later in the month from me, too — and consider participating. It’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and share some holiday cheer!

Chocolate Countdown By Tara Paray

As this Advent Calendar blog series gets underway (again! — yay!) and Advent for Christians starts tomorrow, I’m beginning my countdown today with a very special calendar. I’ve had Advent calendars made of paper with little date windows you open. I’ve also had the kind that hang on the wall, […]

I just did this, right? I know they put some kind of fancy photo-taking pseudo-scientist robot on Mars, but I think they also must have done something to the space-time continuum. November cannot be over already! Alas, my paper calendars (yes, plural) tell me ’tis true. November, like the Autumn that has morphed too quickly into Winter, I barely knew ye (and apparently, I barely knew old English because the first time I typed that, I wrote yee).

AND on top of everything else, I’m writing this post in the evening on November 30, when I meant to write it earlier today (or actually earlier this week then tidy today and post). *le sigh*

Anyway, let’s pause — seriously, is there a pause button for days/weeks/months? Can someone invent that, please? — and take a look back at the month just passed as it comes to an end.

Twas the Tuesday before American Thanksgiving, when we celebrate people in silly hats with buckles pre-snookering cool cats in feather headdresses with crappy food like turkey, but hey, beggers can’t be choosers, eh? I am at work. I will forever be at work. Though told that Friday is “family time,” ergo boss will not be in the office, I will be here, despite the fact that I came from and in fact do still have a family. Apparently, family time = only for the 1%. Continue reading “Una nota de martes”→

As the great musical poet Kiki Dee once said, “I’ve got the music in me.” Seriously, music is part of my daily life, so I participate in Song Lyric Sunday. This week’s theme is soul.Continue reading “Song Lyric Sunday: Soul”→

Starbucks holiday cups have arrived! And I’m sure there are people complaining that they’re not Christmas-y enough.

I’ve meditated about this, and I thought I heard a thought, from whence I know not:

And Jesus said, “Let My people have their festive cups, and may they runeth over. And, if they make one in My image, to celebrate My birthday, let the image be a hologram in which My beard appears / disappears with the heat of the blessed coffee.”

On this Christmas Eve, I’m enjoying treats and fun times with family peeps (Trump 16! *bites tongue*). Instead of Random Thoughts Thursday-ing today, I’m showcasing a holiday moment! If you’re Christmas-ing, I hope it’s full of moments like the one I wrote about earlier this month as part of Solveig Werner’s Advent Calendar post series. For your enjoyment, and ICYMI, I’m posting it here. Enjoy!

Ever have a Christmas ugly cry? I have, and, yay for me, it was caught on camera!

Picture it: sometime in the 80s. Cabbage Patch Kids are all the rage, and that means they can’t be found anywhere! Once a toy store got them in stock, they were gone in mere minutes! The news of their arrival spread, not like wildfire as this was pre-Internet. But quickly, by word of mouth (oh, how I miss old school things sometimes…).

I didn’t care. I was little and I wanted that doll! They were soooooo cute! And everybody had one! And… and… I don’t understand supply and demand. I’m a kid!

My father apparently took that to heart. I’m not sure how it all came about, but his sister the seamstress came across a pattern… for a CABBAGE PATCH KID! So she made one for him and my mom to give me that Christmas. It wasn’t the official one, but it was as close as they could get. Nothing would stop them from getting me what I wanted!

Christmas morning. I know there’s no kid from the Patch in my boxes. I dutifully and, yes, still happily, open my presents, happy to have received them at all whilst learning to live with true disappointment. Oh, the angst of being a girl!

Then! When I thought all the unwrapping was done, my dad pulls out this big box and hints that maybe it’s for me and I just didn’t see it. Another present? What could it be?

I shook it – that’s required.

I felt around the outside – just felt like a box.

With no idea what it could be, I started tearing off the wrapping. A big brown container with no writing on the sides revealed nothing as to its contents. Curiosity’s got me now! So I rip open the top. Then this happened:

(And I have to live with the fact that’s on film for eternity.)

It wasn’t an official store bought doll. It was BETTER! Made just for me. Awwwww.

I named her Mary Ellen after my aunt who made her. I still have her, too, on a shelf with other special keepsakes from my younger years. I did eventually get my official doll, too (his name is Reggie Wally). The way I got him and how my dad struggled to get him is for another time (and hopefully the book I’m writing). I still have him, too. He sits near his handmade sister, two reminders of what love looks like in material form.

I hope your holiday and winter season is filled with reminders of love! … … … …

*dabs eyes… crying from laughter* My ugly cry still looks like that. My hair, thankfully, does not. If you’re celebrating today/tomorrow, I hope you get the chance to cry ugly tears of joy. Or at least eat a bunch of cookies. My faves are the teeny ones shaped like Christmas trees. Mmmmmm. Merry, merry, peeps!

Time for a Holiday Hiatus! I’ll be back to blogging next year! Oh, don’t fret. That’s just a week away! See you again on Tuesday, January 5!